Nigeria U-23 beat Senegal 1-0, qualify for Rio 2016 Olympics

Nigeria have qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics after defeating hosts Senegal in the semi-finals of the 2015 Africa U23 Championship.
Etebo Oghenekaro’s penalty in the 77th minute was all the Dream Team VI needed to ease past the hosts after Ousseynou Thioune had handled the ball in his penalty area to prevent Eyo Ebong from scoring.
Ibrahima Keita failed to put his side ahead in the first half after seeing his penalty saved by man of the match, Emmanuel Daniel, who guessed the right way.
With this victory, the Dream Team will now face the winner between Algeria and South Africa for the 2015 Africa U23 title with the 2016 Olympics men’s football event ticket in their kitty.

Warning signs of genocide increasing says United Nations

As the world remembers the victims of genocide today, the United Nations has called for more attention to be paid to the crime as warning signs are on the rise.
The UN’s Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, made the call in a message on the first-ever International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and the Prevention of this Crime.
“After all, genocide does not just happen; it unfolds over time.  It is not part of the accidental “fallout” of conflict; most often, it is systematic, planned, with precise targets, and it can also take place outside of conflict situations,” he said.
“Across the world today, intolerance and xenophobia are on the rise. A dangerous ‘us versus them’ dynamic is often being exploited to justify the exclusion of communities based on different forms of identity such as religion, ethnicity or other, and to deny assistance, restrict human rights and perpetrate atrocious acts of violence.”

Stop Social Media Bill, IT experts tell Nigeria Senate

Senate President Bukola Saraki says there is no anti-social media bill before the senate.

Speaking on the sideline of Lagos Business School Dinner in which he was a guest, Saraki said senate have only debated the Principle of the bill and not gone into the details of the bill.

Saraki assured Nigerians that if there is any part of the bill that does not conform to human right senate will do the proper thing.

Delivering a speech titled “Macroeconomic outlook for 2016 and legislative perspective at Lagos Business School breakfast club end of the year meeting.

Tension heightened in Yenagoa as thousands of APC supporters protest

Tension heightened in Yenagoa the Bayelsa State capital as thousands of All Progressive Congress APC supporters took to the streets in protest of the cancellation of the rescheduled governorship election in Southern Ijaw local government area.

According to one of the Protesters, Preye Apreala, the decision by the Resident Electoral Commissioner Baritor Kpagih, to cancel the election in Southern Ijaw local government area was criminal and a violation of the electoral rights of the over 120,000 voters that participated in the poll in spite of threats.

Edo State Governor calls for reduction on overhead cost

Edo State Governor has thrown his weight behind the proposed appropriation for 2016, describing it as a realistic budget that would be used to tackle the infrastructure deficit in the country.

Addressing State House Correspondents in Abuja, Governor Adams Oshiomole says previous Budget of the past administration was used to service recurrent expenditure.

He says the 2016 appropriation would correct this and focus more on infrastructure development.

The Edo State governor went on further to say that the 2016 appropriation is not a wish of a witch doctor, adding that the proposed bench mark is very feasible. Governor Adams Oshiomole also stressed that the present depression the country is facing can only be solve by injecting more fund to the economy.

He says there must be conscious attempt to cut overhead and reduce wastage and block all loopholes in the system.

Federal Government to reintroduce toll gates for Revenues generation

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, disclosed that the Federal Government will reintroduce toll gates where revenues generated can be channeled towards  sustaining and maintaining quality federal roads. He promised that money generated from the toll gates will be properly accounted for and judiciously put to use.

Fashola, in his maiden press conference at the Ministry of Works in Abuja, also said the former Ministry of Works owes two hundred and six contractors over two trillion naira for which only thirteen billion naira was released to the Ministry out of the eighteen point one thirty two billion naira it budgeted.

FGN Sets to Reviews Petroleum Industry Bill, Splits NNPC into two

Barring any last minute change in plans, the Federal Government of Nigeria is set to split the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) into two.
A Reuters report said the government is putting finishing touches to draft that will also revisit the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which had stalled for years with a view to replacing it first with ‘a law to overhaul the sector which aims to close loopholes that bred corruption’.
The report said under the new plan, the NNPC will be split in two – rather than a series of units as envisaged by the stalled 2012 bill. It added that a National Oil Company, which will be run on commercial lines and partly privatised, will emerge.
Nigeria’s lawmakers have been divided over the contents of the current 200-page PIB.
In November, the petroleum minister said the government was working on a new PIB that would probably be passed in sections, particularly the thorny issue of a new tax regime that has been criticized by major international oil firms.

Policeman killed in shootout with bank robbers

One policeman has lost his life in a shootout with armed robbers who invaded a community bank in the Adavi Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria.

Sergeant Patrick Sunday was killed alongside two of the armed robbers; Yakubu and another unidentified male.

The Kogi State Police Command, which paraded 21 suspects in the state command headquarters in Lokoja on Tuesday, explained that the incident happened on November 27, when it received information that some bandits numbering about 20 had attacked Akengwu Community Bank in the area.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, William Aya, said, “The hoodlums engaged the police in a gun battle, leading to the death of Sergeant Sunday, while two of the criminals were gunned down.

Fraud: EFCC arraigns Dokpesi for laundering N2.1bn, fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday arraigned Chairman emeritus of DAAR Communications Plc, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, before a Federal High Court in Abuja on six counts of money laundering  and procurement fraud related charges.

Dokpesi who was arraigned along with his firm, Daar Investment and Holdings Ltd, pleaded not guilty to all the six counts.

After Dokpesi took his plea on Wednesday, Justice Gabriel Kolawole ordered that he be remanded in EFCC custody pending the hearing of his bail application by 12.30pm on Thursday.

The prosecution led by Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN),‎ accused the defendants of receiving, N2.1bn from the office of the National Security Adviser between October 2014 and March 19, 2015 for the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential media campaign in breach of provisions of the Public Procurement Act, Money laundering Act and the EFCC Act.

Justice Kolawole has fixed trial for February 17, 18 and March 2 and 3.

Trending: Scientists confirm new sexual disease

Scientists in the +United Kingdom  have confirmed the existence of a new sexually transmitted disease called mycoplasma genitalium.
The confirmation of the bacterial disease, which causes painful urination among other things, as an STD comes more than two decades after it was first discovered.
A team of fourteen researchers arrived at the conclusion after conducting a national survey of the sexual lifestyles and attitudes of British men and women.
The researchers said the study, which involved the testing urine from 4,507 sexually experienced participants aged 16 to 44 years for MG, “strengthens evidence that MG is an STI”.
They added, “MG was identified in over one per cent of the population, including in men with high-risk behaviours in older age groups that are often not included in STI prevention measures.”
The study found that men of black ethnicity were more likely to test positive for MG and showed that the prevalence of the disease was 1.2 per cent in men and 1.3 per cent in women.
It also found that for both men and women, the disease was strongly associated with reporting risk behaviours such as increasing the number of total and new partners and unsafe sex in the past year.
Although it recorded no positive MG tests in men aged 16 to19, prevalence peaked at 2.1 per cent in men aged 25–34 years, while prevalence in was highest in 16 to 19-year-olds at 2.4 per cent and decrease with age.